


The Stars Are in Shock

by PunsBulletsAndPointyThings



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, GFY, Grieving, I'm Sorry, Offscreen character death, Spoilers for Savage and Maul arc, unbetad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-05-20
Packaged: 2018-06-09 14:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6910234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunsBulletsAndPointyThings/pseuds/PunsBulletsAndPointyThings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It hits him like a wave and Mace can't breathe because she's gone, gone, /gone/.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Stars Are in Shock

**Author's Note:**

> I WAS writing Clone Dads fluff, and then Tears of an Angel came on and somehow I started thinking about MaceAdi and, well, I'm sorry.

“Our final count’s pretty good, Sir.” Ponds says, striding over to where Mace is talking with Bev by one of their gunships. “We have more than enough troops to finish pushing the Separatists back, and General Mundi’s troops are incoming.”  
  
“Good.” Mace rises to his feet, stretching as he moves. “We’ll rest for now. Tell the men we move out at 066 hours.” Ponds nods, and Mace takes a step forwards, meaning to make a circuit of their camp.  
  
It hits him like a wave, and his knees buckle at the force of it. It feels like all the air has been punched from his lungs, and Mace gasps in shock and pain. The entire galaxy freezes around him, and his vision is filled with green and black, rage and fear, and then pain, pain, pain. He stumbles back, arms wrapping around his stomach despite himself and then-  
  
Gone, quick as it had begun, and Mace is back in his own body, and he’s alone in his head for the first time in over a decade because Adi is gone. His eyes widen, and for a moment he is panicking, scrabbling in his mind for the bond that has been ripped away.  
  
_/ADI!/_  
  
“General?!”  
  
Mace comes back to himself with a lurch that fights to become a retch. He clamps down on the urge, shoving it away, and turns to see Ponds and Bev staring at him, concern painted clear on their faces. He sucks in a breath, forces it to be steady. He is calm. He is calm.  
  
“I’m fine.”  
  
Neither man looks convinced, but Mace narrows his eyes and they nod reluctantly. Ponds shoots him a narrow-eyed, suspicious look that promises the clone will not be forgetting this, and will be bringing it up later, before the medic and commander turn and head further into the camp.  
  
Mace allows himself a moment to slump against the side of the gunship, breathing hard and shakily. His mind is screaming at the sudden emptiness where his bond with Adi had been, and it leaves the Master feeling nauseous and unbalanced.  
  
He checks the space again. Echoing emptiness greets the mental probe, and Mace recoils.  
  
She’s gone.  
  
He swallows hard, and then forces himself through the motions of bundling up all the emotions suddenly raging inside him, and expelling them into the Force. He is a Master and a General. He cannot afford to fall apart right now.  
  
Later. Not now.  
  
The rest of the campaign goes off without a hitch. Mace goes through the motions, maintaining his usual, deadly efficiency. He ignores the concerned glances he gets from his men, and spends all his unoccupied minutes in empty meditation.  
  
Later. Later.  
  
The somber comm-call from Yoda comes as no surprise, and soon Mace is standing on the bridge of his cruiser, as they make their way back to Coruscant. He stares out at the twisting blue-white of hyperspace, and feels cold; a deep chill that has been steadily seeping into his bones, freezing him from the inside out, numbing his every though, every sense.  
  
Yoda meets him at the landing platform. The grief in the ancient Master’s eyes does nothing to warm the blood in Mace’s veins, the thoughts barely shifting in his head.  
  
“Is she-“  
  
A nod.  
  
Mace mimics the gesture. They walk in silence, until they are inside the Temple proper, when he asks, voice flat, “How?”  
  
“Confronted the Sith, Darth Maul and Savage, she and Master Kenobi did.”  
  
“Kenobi?”  
  
“Survived, he did.”  
  
“And the Sith?”  
  
“Dead.”  
  
Mace nods again, and then bows low. “If you will excuse me, Master Yoda.”  
  
He turns before receiving a response, and strides off down the hall. He ignore Yoda’s worried gaze that burns into his back as he flees.  
  
He’s nearly back to their-  
  
He’s nearly back to his rooms, when he hears someone say his name.  
  
“Mace.”  
  
Obi-Wan stand a few feet away from his door. There is blatant sorrow decorating the younger man’s face, and all at once the ice is gone and Mace can barely breathe for the pain.  
  
He says nothing, as he reaches out and grabs Kenobi’s arm, towing him after him, and into the rooms. The other Master goes easily, saying nothing.  
  
Being in the rooms is even worse, and Mace immediately regrets his decision to return there. Everywhere he looks there are reminders of her, and when he opens his mouth, tries to say something, anything, the only thing that comes out is a wrecked, gasping noise.  
  
He makes no move to shake off Obi-Wan’s hands, when the other man touches his shoulder, just clenches his fists and squeezes his eyes closed, desperately trying to maintain some sense of calm and control.  
  
He’s failing miserably, and for the first time since he was an Initiate, he feels lost and powerless, swept up in the waves of emotion and Force that thunder around him and threaten to pull him under.  
  
“I’m so sorry,” Obi-Wan is whispering, and then he is wrapping Mace in an embrace. With a choked sob, Mace gives in, going slack in the shorter man’s hold. They both sink slowly to the floor, and Mace presses his face against Obi-Wan’s shoulder like a child and sobs, hands fisting in the fabric of the other Master’s robe.  
  
“I’m sorry,” Obi-Wan whispers again, and his voice is shaking too, “I’m so sorry, Mace. I failed her, I failed you. I’m so sorry.”  
  
Mace gives no reply, and he knows Kenobi is not expecting one. He shakes under the man’s hands as he grieves and grieves and _grieves_ for the loss of his bondmate.  
  
Later, he will stand tall; calm in face and Force. Later, he will light Adi Gallia’s pyre and whisper a silent farewell to the woman who lit his life brighter than a supernova, and then he will release her into the Force along with the pain of her passing, never to be forgotten, but to be remembered, to rejoice in her becoming one with the Force, with the very particles that fill his lungs and his senses. Later, he will return to the front lines. The war will go on, stars will die and beings will be born. The galaxy will continue. Later.  
  
But for now, Mace is not a Jedi, not a General or Councilor. Now, he is grief, and pain, and loss, and he cries until he can do nothing more than shake in Obi-Wan’s arms.  
  
Later, he will live, but for now he is dying with his lost love.

**Author's Note:**

> It occurs to me now that Ponds may not be alive by the time Adi dies. However it is almost midnight and I simply cannot bring myself to care enough to deal with the Sithshit that is TCW's chronological order.
> 
> Also, the medic Bev's name means 'needle' in Mando'a.


End file.
